The world being overly full of gloomy prospects in the two steps forward, one step back minuet that characterizes environmental progress, it seems to me that Earth Day is a good vantage point for turning from the bad news to note a few of the happier glimmers.

So here are a few environmental success stories — all works in progress, of course — for Canadians to celebrate:

Waste diversion: It’s not as dramatic as battling against bloody seal hunts or campaigning for the indisputable beauty of old growth forests, but getting municipal garbage out of landfills and keeping it away from incinerators is a crucial step toward mitigating urban ecological footprints, reducing greenhouse gases and improving air and water quality.

According to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, although Canadian waste generation increased by eight per cent between 2004 and 2006, urban diversion programs meant that 22 per cent of the total of 35 million tonnes — that’s 7.7 million tonnes — did not go to disposal sites but was recycled or reused.

British Columbians exceeded the national average, diverting 32 per cent of municipal waste. A Vancouver Foundation study found that in 2008, 54 per cent of Metro households composted kitchen and yard wastes, double the rate for the previous year.

Among the most impressive achievements, the regional district of Nanaimo (population 146,000) diverted 64 per cent of its garbage, including more than 16,000 tonnes of organic and commercial food waste.

The Boreal Forest: Brokered by the Pew Environment Group in 2010, that’s the conservation arm of the Pew Charitable Trusts, one of those funding bodies so recently denounced by our federal government as working against national interests, the Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement found common ground for an alliance between 20 timber companies and nine leading environmental organizations.

The agreement protects 72 million hectares within Canada’s share of the world’s largest intact forest stretching from B.C. to Newfoundland. It integrates large-scale habitat protection for species like woodland caribou and lynx with significantly higher environmental standards for sustainable forest management. Environmental activists have said that its importance “cannot be overstated” as a model for the rest of the world.

Is it working? The first independent audit delivered in 2011 reported progress toward five of the six strategic goals outlined in the agreement. Five of the 20 project management milestones scheduled for completion within the first year had been achieved, work was in progress on 10, four hadn’t begun and one had run into an obstacle. The next independent audit is due late in 2012, but it looks like a major success so far.

Clean Water: Since initiatives to attack the problem of acid rain began in the 1970s, there’s been significant progress in protecting Canada’s lakes and rivers from both excessive extraction for residential and industrial use and from degradation by atmospheric fallout, toxic industrial effluents, agricultural run-off and waste water from cities.

For example, daily per capita domestic water use by Canadian households fell by 20 per cent between 1991 and 2009. This coincided with an increase in the metering of household water use. In jurisdictions where water use was metered and subject to volume-based pricing, we became more efficient and water use fell by 39 per cent per person compared to flat-rate water pricing. So once again, municipal governments have led the way toward sustainability.

In the big water picture, accomplishments include progress in cleaning up the Great Lakes where bird and fish populations show significant declines in contamination by toxic chemicals and a watershed-wide initiative to restore the ecological integrity of Lake Winnipeg that involves Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.

Canadian rivers flowing through populated regions had water quality monitored between 2007 and 2009 and 80 per cent ranked from fair to excellent, with 41 per cent ranking good to excellent.

In B.C., water quality ranked fair to excellent in the Peace, Fraser, Columbia, Okanagan and Similkameen river systems at 25 of 28 monitoring stations. At three points, quality was marginal but it was rated poor at no monitoring stations.

Protected areas: Defined by the federal government as areas where development is restricted by legal or other means for purposes of conservation of natural features or ecosystems, Canada’s protected lands have nearly doubled since 1990.

Although limited development or industrial activity is permitted in some cases, Environment Canada reports that as of 2010, 94 per cent of the protected lands in Canada were “strictly protected.”

Canada is approaching the Convention on Biological Diversity target of having 10 per cent of each ecological region protected by 2010, although it lags the new 17-per-cent target set under the agreement in 2010. However, B.C. is already close to the new target with 14.4 per cent of the province’s land mass under protection. A major challenge will be to set aside 10 per cent of marine areas for protection by 2020 under the agreement, since Canada lags significantly in this sector.

Globally, 11.6 per cent of all land and fresh waters are now protected, an increase of 34 per cent since 1990. Overall, Canada ranks fourth in the world for total land area protected, ranking behind Russia, the U.S. and Australia.

Toxic releases: According to Environment Canada’s figures, household use of the herbicides, pesticides and lawn fertilizers whose residues washed into storm drains and thence into waterways, fell by about 25 per cent between 2005 and 2007, with Quebec and B.C. leading the way.

Monitoring of benchmark metals released into water showed similar declines between 2003 and 2009, when releases of mercury fell by 10 per cent, lead by 33 per cent and cadmium by 38 per cent.

Industry did its part, too. Across North America, industrial pollution monitored by the Commission for Environmental Cooperation fell by almost 19 per cent between 2005 and 2009 from 5.7 billion kilograms to 4.9 billion.

For example, a federal government program launched in 2009 to improve the environmental performance of Canada’s pulp and paper industry reported significant decreases in emissions of greenhouse gases, particulates and odour-causing gases in 2012. The industry had also decreased water use, effluent discharges and waste sent to landfills.

One mill in Prince George was able to reduce emission of odour-causing gases by 60 per cent.

In the Great Lakes, a key barometer for toxic releases, contaminants in herring gull eggs have declined by 90 per cent since 1974 and concentrations of contaminants like PCBs, DDT and mercury are significantly down in most monitored fish species.

You: None of these achievements occurred because of altruism on the part of corporations or governments. They occurred because of activist citizens and educators, non-governmental environmental organizations and individuals who decided to do something, whether politically or socially.

Two-thirds of Canadians feel their federal government isn’t paying enough attention to environmental issues, according to a 2010 poll by Angus Reid.

They cite four issues as their biggest environmental concerns: the pollution of rivers, lakes and reservoirs (80 per cent); contamination of soil and water by toxic waste (76 per cent); pollution of drinking water (72 per cent); and air pollution (70 per cent).

In Metro, for example, the Vancouver Foundation reports that 74 per cent of residents chose tap water over bottled water; they shop for farm gate produce at a growing number of local markets and their purchases sustain organic methods for 13 per cent of the vegetables, fruits and coarse grains grown in the region.

More than half the households in Metro are composting, 56 per cent of waste is diverted from landfills, residential water use has declined by eight per cent and nine out of 10 inhabitants say they believe that their individual actions can improve the quality of the environment.

From noisy protest campaigns to quiet personal choices in the market place and in lifestyle, Canada’s environmental successes are due to citizen activists prepared to make choices between the easy thing and the right thing.